The Arkansas Department of Community Correction (ADCC) oversees the state’s non-traditional correction programs, such as probation and parole, as well as community correction centers that offer drug/alcohol treatment and vocational programs. ADCC’s mission is “To promote public safety and a crime-free lifestyle by providing cost-effective community-based sanctions, and enforcing state laws and court mandates in the supervision and treatment of adult offenders.”

ADCC was originally named the Arkansas Department of Community Punishment, which was created by Acts 548 and 549 of 1993. The act noted that “the ever increasing numbers of offenders in traditional penitentiaries” brought “added fiscal pressures on state government” and thus sought to bring the cost down “through the use of community punishment programs and non-traditional facilities” for those inmates who offered little risk to the public. Community punishment was defined by the act as “non-traditional punishment centers and non-residential community punishments.” These include, among other things, probation, home detention programs, community service programs, work release programs, restitution programs, boot camps, drug and alcohol treatment services, vocational and educational programs, mental health treatment, and parole. The Arkansas Department of Correction (ADC), which manages the state’s traditional prison facilities, was not affected by this act, and inmates who violate the terms of their probation or sentence under ADCC are transferred back to prison. After the passage of Act 323 of 2001, the Arkansas Department of Community Punishment became the Arkansas Department of Community Correction; the change in the name was due to “the inconsistency between the name of the department and its established purposes.”

ADCC maintains offices in most county seats and manages six community correction centers and five day reporting centers. The agency also oversees the pilot program of the state’s sex offender program, which includes probation and parole officers located in five regions of the state and trained specifically in managing sex offenders.